Question: What do people normally think of while driving?

Jamal Kinsella answered on 5 Nov 2018:

Great question – like everything in psychology, it’s complicated!

When people drive, they actually don’t really think very hard about the complex mental activity involved in the driving process. When we’ve practiced a complex behaviour thousands of times, we can do it without even thinking about it!

In my research, I ask people what they’re thinking about as they’re driving so I can see what makes learner drivers, novice drivers, and expert drivers different. So far, results show that expert drivers make greater connections between different types of thinking in their thought process. So, an expert driver can say “I know based on this turn that I’ll be on a country road, so I need to slow down”, whereas a novice driver is more likely to not make that connection as quickly, if they even make it at all. A lot of learner drivers require road signs in order to drive, but experts are so developed at it they could drive without any signs at all!

So, to answer your question, they will think about the most complex or unusual aspects of driving (e.g. how to change driving whilst it’s snowing, when to change gears, etc.), but if they’re just doing an easy drive, they’ll use their spare brain capacity just to daydream about dinner – like the rest of us!